Sailing On
The constellation Corvus, the crow, glows to the lower right of the brilliant star Spica on May evenings. Its brightest…
Arming the Milky Way
This diagram shows the structure of the Milky Way galaxy, including its major and minor spiral arms. Our solar system…
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Ringfest
A massive ring system surrounds a giant planet in the star system J1407, as depicted in this artist’s concept. The…
Stellar Beacon
Canopus, the second-brightest star in the night sky, has served as a beacon for travelers for centuries. Today, it guides…
Turbulent Giant
Giant storms ripple across the atmosphere of Jupiter, the solar system’s largest planet, in this 2000 view from the Cassini…
Brilliant Echo
Light from an erupting star illuminates vast clouds of gas and dust in this 2006 view from Hubble Space Telescope.…
Hot Lake
A giant lake of molten rock forms a dark horseshoe on the surface of Io, one of the big moons…
Close Twins
The two stars that form the system MY Camelopardalis are so close together that they share their outer layers of…
Final Approach
The dwarf planet Ceres spins on its axis in this animation compiled from 27 images from the Dawn spacecraft, which…
On the Frontier
The gravity of the galaxies that form a cluster known as Abell 2744 warps and magnifies the view of more-distant…